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Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Statistics don't lie!

Sometime within the next nine months the Maryland General Assembly will be asked to pass a slot machine bill by Governor Martin O'Malley. O'Malley has already said that slots are needed to save horse racing, and fix the states budget. Over the last few weeks this has become a very hot issue in the news and on talk radio. It seems that the citizens and representatives from Baltimore City's Pimlico neighborhood are against slots. These neighborhoods are afraid of the problems that may be caused with increased traffic and gambling. After hearing an elected member of the Baltimore City Council on the radio yesterday, I decided to do a little homework. I went to the Baltimore City Police website and did a crime search. I figured I would start small, about a quarter mile in each direction from the finish line at the famed race course. The website was limited to the search dates, so I used the 14 day period from May 19 - June 2. Take a look! Can you tell me how slot machines are going to make things worse? I am trying to dig a little deeper and find the most up to date stats. If the General Assembly passes a slot machine bill, and those machines are not placed at Pimlico, you can forget about Old Hilltop. Magna will shut it down, and the Preakness will be run at Gulfstream, where they would be thrilled to have 100,000 people from all over the country!